Late Nights and Burned Pancakes
by Shnanners
Summary: Sam lives beneath Gabe, the dorm's self-proclaimed 'Party King', and after one party too many (and too many repeats of a certain Asia song), Sam can't take the noise anymore.


"Hey Princess! You gonna keep yourself shut up in your tower again tonight or are you gonna come up and party with the rest of us cool kids?"

Sam sighed, letting his head bang against the door he'd been trying-and failing, stupid dorm locks-to open for the past three minutes. He was tired, he had about a million hours worth of homework to do, and he recognized that voice.

Turning, he frowned when he was met with the sight of a golden-eyed, golden-haired midget with a goofy grin that usually tied his stomach in knots, but right now just frustrated him to no end.

"Gabriel," Sam huffed. "Another party? Really? That's the third one in as many days. You do realize we have midterms next week, don't you?"

Gabriel just kept grinning as he shook his head in amusement at Sam's lack of enthusiasm. "Sam, Sam, Sam, don't you see? That's exactly why we need all the parties! These tests have everyone all worked up and stressed and that's not good for anyone's brain!"

Sam just sighed at the boy's antics. He'd met Gabriel a few months ago at the dorm's annual Meet & Greet the night after they moved in, and they'd talked for long enough for Sam to consider them casual acquaintances. Honestly, most of the conversation had consisted of Gabe calling Sam a giant and Sam retaliating with short jokes (Gabe stood a mere 5'8" and was considered short by normal standards-standing next to Sam's huge 6'4" frame he was completely dwarfed), banter which was only occasionally interrupted by the shorter boy's claims that what he lacked in size he made up for in his ability to throw a party, at one point even loudly declaring himself the dorm's official Party King, which resulted in cheers from their peers.

Sam had realized within the first week just how seriously Gabe took his Party King title, as he lived in the room just below and was constantly subjected to loud music and the synchronized banging of college kids jumping to the beat at all hours of the night. "Whatever, Gabe. I'm going to be spending the night studying because, unlike some people, I actually care about my grades."

Undeterred by Sam's apathetic tone, Gabriel just smiled and shrugged. "Suit yourself Sasquatch. If you change your mind, you know where to find us!" And with a wink that was far too cute for a trickster like him to be able to pull off (not that Sam noticed that kind of thing), Gabriel turned and hopped up the stairs towards his room, as Sam sighed and finally managed to unlock his door while mentally preparing himself for a long night of big words and many headaches.

Groaning, Sam let his head hit the desk as the words on the page he'd read 5 times without comprehending finally began to blur. The music and stomping from above was louder than it had been any other night so far, and Sam just couldn't focus to save his life.

As the music thumped in his head, he reached without looking into the top drawer of his desk and felt around for the bottle of ibuprofen he kept there in order to stave off the headache he felt building with every bass drop from above him. Sitting up when he finally grasped the bottle, he looked around for a bottle of water to down along with the medicine, and his eyes happened to fall on the alarm clock next to his bed.

 _3:47 am. You have got to be fucking kidding me._

Seriously, this was getting ridiculous. Sure, Sam acknowledged that partying is totally a huge part of college life. Literally everyone knew that. It's common sense. But this was the third time this week that Gabe had thrown an all night rager, and with the first midterm exam in just three days, well… Studying had to take priority at some point.

Sam was getting ready to just give up and put in a pair of earplugs to try to sleep through the noise for at least a few hours, when he heard the unmistakable opening guitar riff that he'd been praying for the last hour that he wouldn't ever hear again. Asia was great, sure, but not even he could listen to _Heat of the Moment_ five times in one night and not get sick of it.

Seriously. Sam slammed down his pencil and stood up, grabbing his keys and slipping on the pair of flip flops he had sitting by the door. Enough was enough.

Okay, so by the time he was standing right outside the door that contained the tiny party animal and his loud friends, he was beginning to think that maybe this wasn't the best idea he'd ever had.

 _What am I thinking? I'm tired, I'm delirious, he's really fucking cute, I say really fucking stupid things when I'm tired and delirious… wow I sound like an insane person. I am an insane person. That's why I'm here. Right. Gotta stop this madness so I can sleep and stop being tired and delirious and insane. I can do this._

Straightening his shoulders, Sam raised his hand and rapped on the door 3 times, then stood back, hoping that his attempt at gaining someone's attention wouldn't go unnoticed thanks to the blaring speakers.

He was getting ready to knock again when the door flew open and the sight he was met with silenced all words, stupid or otherwise, that he was planning on saying.

By no means should Sam have found the very, very drunk and tiny guy in front of him attractive in any way at that moment, but he did. He really did and he had no idea how he should feel about that.

Gabriel was wearing what Sam was sure was once a very nice navy blue button down dress shirt, but it was now very rumpled and only one of the buttons was done. His pants… well, they aren't really pants, but rather leggings with the Marvel comics version of Loki printed all over them. Gabe was flushed and stumbling and if he were to speak, all of his words would probably come out very slurred, not to mention that he was completely covered, from head to toe, in glitter.

Sam didn't think he'd ever felt so attracted to another human in his entire life.

It took Sam a few moments to take all of this in, and he still was unable to speak by the time he had. Lucky for him, Gabriel regained the ability to function as a human (sorta) much more quickly than Sam.

"Sammykins!" Gabe threw himself into Sam's arms, which fortunately pulled Sam out of his semi-conscious state of awe. Unfortunately, however, Gabe seemed to have forgotten that he was holding what seemed to be a very full cup of something very alcoholic that was thrown along with Gabe himself all over Sam.

Gabe, at the moment, seemed incapable of standing, so daring to peek around the door and into the room, Sam saw that everyone else seemed to be in about the same state as their host. He decided it would be in everyone's best interest to go ahead and send all the guests home. Meanwhile, Gabe slipped down to the floor and leaned against the wall, watching Sam as he held the door open and ushered people out.

Once everyone was gone, Sam closed the door and looked over at the drunk mess leaning adorably against the wall and trying (failing) to hum along to whatever song was playing from the speakers. Sam reached over to the speakers and shut them off, prompting Gabe to look up at him with big, sad, golden eyes that Sam just wanted to…

 _Okay, no. Stop right there Winchester. You need to sleep._

"Sam?"

Sam jumped, then looked down at Gabe who seemed to be slightly less drunk than he was a few minutes ago ( _Minutes? Wait, how long did I zone out for?_ ). "Gabe, I need sleep. You need sleep. Everyone needs sleep. You're covered in glitter and you smell like a bar. Take a shower and go to bed. Think you can manage that?"

Gabe looked up at him and blinked, then attempted a sexy half-smile that just came out more adorable than sexy. "I'm sure it'd be a lot easier with a sasquatch to help me out."

Sam felt the blood rush into his face and knew that he was bright red. "I… I mean you… uh, um. Ugh. Yeah. You're drunk Gabe. Go to sleep. See ya." And with that, Sam raced back down to his room to change into something not covered in Gabriel's drink of choice and then hide under his blankets and try not to think about the golden eyes that looked more than a little hurt when they watched him as he made his not so graceful retreat.

Sam woke up to a hesitant sounding knock on his door.

It took him a minute to figure out what was different than usual when he woke up, but he eventually realized that he was not, in fact, in his bed, but rather asleep face first at his desk on a textbook.

Right. Because the night before he had lain tossing and turning for hours, but simply could not get the image of gorgeous golden eyes out of his head.

(No, okay if he was being honest, it was also partially the way those fucking leggings made Gabriel's ass look, but Sam wasn't gonna admit that ever in… well… ever.)

Anyways, he had eventually decided that the best course of action would be to just get up and study some more, since obviously sleep wasn't gonna happen. He supposed he must have just passed out at some point during one of the particularly wordy and boring paragraphs in his textbook. Not that he could identify which one. They all sort of blurred together after a while.

He was brought back to the present by a second, even more hesitant sounding (how did that even work?) knock on his door, and he got up to answer it.

Opening the door, he saw a very tired looking Gabriel holding a plate of black… uh… somethings that smelled very burned.

"Gabe?"

"Oh, uh…" Gabe stumbled over his words. Sam figured it was probably the hangover. "I uh, I just wanted to apologize for uh, last night? I don't really remember all that much but I think I spilled my drink on you and maybe said something that was not so nice or something because I remember you running out really fast and feeling really bad afterwards so I just wanted to apologize and… uh… stuff. For. You know. That."

Gabriel was looking at the floor, so he didn't notice Sam trying to hold in his (very manly) giggles over seeing the shorter boy so flustered. Taking a few deep breaths, he waited to respond until he figured his voice would be steady enough to not betray his laughter and further embarrass his friend.

"It's fine Gabe. Everyone gets drunk and does stupid things. It's practically a requirement to do it at least once in college, right?" At this, Gabe looked up, seemingly grateful that Sam didn't hate him, and Sam couldn't help but smile at the relief that was obvious on his face.

"Right. College. Drinks and parties and insanity. It happens." Gabe let out a small chuckle before continuing. "But I mean, I know you were trying to study and such last night and I guess we probably were a little louder than normal, so I wanted to bring you breakfast to apologize."

At this, Sam looked down at the platter of burned whatever it is that he guesses was supposed to be the aforementioned breakfast. "I take it that cooking um… breakfast food with a hangover doesn't go over too well."

Gabe grimaced, glancing down at the failed attempt at a meal in his hands. "Yeah, not so much. It was supposed to be pancakes. Leave it to a hangover to make me forget that you're supposed to flip them."

Sam couldn't help but laugh at that, and Gabe chuckled a bit too. "Yeah, as much as I appreciate the offer of breakfast or whatever this," Sam commented, gesturing weakly at the platter of burned pancakes, "is supposed to have been, I think I'm gonna get some real food. But thanks."

"No problem, see ya around" Gabe nodded, and turned to go. As Sam went to close the door however, Gabe quickly turned back around and put his foot in the door to prevent it from closing.

Sam paused, looking down in amusement as gold eyes flicked to look anywhere but at him and normally pale cheeks took on a slightly rosy tint. "Yes?"

Gabe took a deep breath, and then spoke quickly, as though trying to get all of his words out with that single breath. "Would you maybe possibly still let me make it up to you by maybe possibly buying you breakfast in a date type of situation?"

Sam stood in shock for a minute, staring down at his friend (they were totally friends now, it happens after seeing someone drunk) who seemed to be holding his breath with both confusion and excitement. There was no way he heard that right. This tiny, adorable, sexy ball of energy and party actually wanted to go on a date with him? Really?

"Sam? Could you maybe say something in some sort of answer formation before I pass out?"

Sam shook himself and really looked at Gabriel-who did in fact look as though he was about to pass out-and smiled. "I'd love to go on a breakfast date type of situation with you."

Gabe smiled the biggest smile Sam had ever seen, and he thought that maybe, just maybe, late night parties weren't the worst thing in the world after all.


End file.
